White House requests $500 million to aid Syrian 'rebels' [Yeah, people in Detroit need to become 'rebels' to fight their corporate-owned dictator aka Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr--a recess appointment position, no less--who wants to *privatize* the city's water supply and everything else. I wonder if the government would give *those* rebels 500 million?] 26 Jun 2014 The White House on Thursday asked Congress for half-a-billion dollars in aid to go toward opposition fighters in Syria at war with the regime government of recently re-elected [in a landslide] President Bashar Al-Assad. In a report sent to lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday, the White House requested 500 million in aid to "help defend the Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control and facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement." The Associated Press reported that the multimillion dollar request makes up just a fraction of a larger, 65.8 billion overseas operations request sent to Congress that, if approved, would fund a number of Pentagon and State Department programs, as well as $1 billion in assistance to nations adjacent to Syria. [65.8 billion to enhance US corpora-terrorists' pockets--but we can't get a pothole fixed or a bridge repaired here in the US. Start reading.]

ISIS supporters vow to avenge any US airstrike in Iraq 25 Jun 2014 Supporters of Sunni Islamists waging a campaign of terror across Iraq have vowed that any US airstrikes against its fighters will be met with attacks on Americans. The group has also threatened to commandeer its own Air Force as Iraq risks disintegrating. A twitter account with 21,000 followers, dubbed the "League of Supporters", called for ISIS sympathizers to post messages warning America not to carry out airstrikes.

Bombing, shelling kill several south of Baghdad 25 Jun 2014 At least nine people have been killed in bombing and shelling by Takfiri militants in a region south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The attacks by the al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] splinter Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also left around 20 people injured in the Mahmudiyah area on Wednesday. The bombing took place in a busy market while shellfire struck different parts of the region. Meanwhile, a car bomb claimed five lives in a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Military Probers Have Not Read Bowe Bergdahl His Rights 25 Jun 2014 Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has not been read his legal rights but anything he says during his medical "reintegration" process could be used against him a military court martial, officials said Wednesday. Military investigators looking into possible criminal charges of AWOL or desertion have not yet questioned Bergdahl about his disappearance from an Army outpost in Afghanistan five years ago and his subsequent capture by the Taliban...Bergdahl has not asked for a lawyer, officials said.

Theresa May calls for return of snooper's charter: She warns internet is a 'paradise for terrorists' --Home Secretary said security services need new surveillance powers 24 Jun 2014 The security services need new surveillance powers to counter the 'real and deadly' threat from jihadists, Theresa May warned last night in a fresh call for a so-called 'snooper's charter'. The Home Secretary said the conflicts in Syria and Iraq had created a haven for terrorists just a few hours from London by plane. At the same time, the internet has become a 'paradise' for terrorists and criminals who can operate out of the reach of the authorities.

Federal judge rules U.S. no-fly list violates Constitution 24 Jun 2014 The U.S. government's no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, ruling on a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oregon by 13 Muslim Americans who were branded with the no-fly status, ordered the government to come up with new procedures that allow people on the no-fly list to challenge that designation.

Lemurs face extinction --The updated International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List describes the primates as one of the most threatened groups of animals on Earth. 23 Jun 2014 More than 90% of lemurs are facing extinction, according to the latest global assessment of the world's most threatened species. With 90 species of lemur now classed as being at risk of extinction (91%), the primates are one of the most threatened groups of animals on Earth.

Zoos Are Fun for People but Awful for Animals --A polar bear's natural range may be about a million times the size of a zoo enclosure. 20 Jun 2014 In the mid-1990s, Gus, a polar bear in the Central Park Zoo, alarmed visitors by compulsively swimming figure eights in his pool, sometimes for 12 hours a day. Gus is one of the many mentally unstable animals featured in Laurel Braitman's new book, Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. The book features a dog that jumps out of a fourth floor apartment, a shin-biting miniature donkey, gorillas that sob...

178 barrels of oil spill into Colorado's only designated wild and scenic river A 7,500-gallon storage tank of crude oil has completely drained into the scenic Cache La Poudre, Colorado's only designated National Wild and Scenic River, southeast of Fort Collins. Vegetation was covered by an oil slick a quarter-mile downstream, but authorities claim "no drinking water intakes have been affected." [?] The environmental disaster occurred at Noble Energy facility near Windsor in northern Colorado, in imminent proximity to the popular Poudre River Trail, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) reported late Friday afternoon.

Boehner readies House lawsuit over Obama executive orders 25 Jun 2014 Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Wednesday he plans to sue President Barack Obama, accusing him of abusing his authority by going around Congress to implement his policy agenda. The suit, to be filed by the House of Representatives later this summer, takes issue with executive actions Obama has taken on issues ranging from healthcare to energy to foreign policy, Boehner said. But he declined to be specific about which administration actions he would challenge.

Supreme Court rules against Obama on recess appointments26 Jun 2014 The Supreme Court has ruled President Obama exceeded his power under the Constitution by filling federal positions when the Senate was on a brief break. But the narrow ruling also preserved the president's power to make recess appointments in general. While the president is authorized to fill "vacancies" while the Senate is on "recess," the justices decided in a 9-0 ruling that the Senate was not on a true recess in January 2012 when Obama filled three seats on the National Labor Relations Board.

In a win for abortion foes, Supreme Court rejects clinic buffer zone 26 Jun 2014 The Supreme Court has rejected an effort by Massachusetts effort to enforce a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. The narrowly written 9-0 decision is a free-speech victory for abortion opponents. It upholds the rights of "sidewalk counselors" who wish to speak to young pregnant women to persuade them against having an abortion. The ruling is a setback for women's health clinics that have tried to prevent protesters from blocking their doors.

Appeals court: States can't ban gay marriage 26 Jun 2014 A federal appeals court ruled for the first time Wednesday that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, extending the movement's legal winning streak and bringing the issue a big step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. The three-judge panel in Denver ruled 2-1 that states cannot deprive people of the fundamental right to marry simply because they choose a partner of the same sex. The court dismissed as "wholly illogical" the notion that allowing gays to wed could somehow undermine traditional marriage.

Investigators launch another Christie bridge probe, this time over Pulaski Skyway, report says 24 Jun 2014 As Gov. Chris Christie continues to deal with the fallout of the George Washington Bridge scandal, investigators have launched another bridge-related probe into his administration -- this time over possible securities law violations stemming from a plan to repair the Pulaski Skyway, according to a report by the New York Times. The Manhattan district attorney's office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into a 2011 agreement Christie made to use $1.8 billion in Port Authority money to pay for repairs to the Skyway, a nearly 4-mile bridge-causeway linking Newark and Jersey City, according to the report.

2nd Bridge Inquiry Said to Be Linked to Christie 23 Jun 2014 Investigations into the Christie administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have zeroed in on possible securities law violations stemming from a $1.8 billion road repair agreement in 2011, according to people briefed on the matter. While the inquiries were prompted by the apparently politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year, these investigations center on another crossing: the Pulaski Skyway, the crumbling elevated roadway connecting Newark and Jersey City. They are being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Senator Cochran squeezes past Tea Party rival in Mississippi runoff 24 Jun 2014 U.S. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi narrowly defeated challenger Chris McDaniel on Tuesday in a high-profile runoff election that pitted the Republican Party establishment against the insurgent Tea Party movement. The bitterly-fought election had become a multimillion-dollar referendum on the direction of the Republican Party as it tries to win control of the U.S. Senate in the November congressional elections.